Keyfile Keyflow

Tracking your project's progress through email

Managing a project's workflow is an arduous chore that can be even more difficult if your project management software doesn't integrate with electronic messaging. Keyfile recognized the need for a software tool that lets you use email to track your project's progress and created Keyflow. Keyflow uses Microsoft's Exchange Server as a base to provide a mechanism for streamlining tasks within your organization.

Keyflow consists of client and server components. The server componenthandles the administrative work, and the client component obtains informationfrom users to feed to the server. A full installation requires 5MB of disk spaceand a minimum of 16MB of RAM on the server, 15MB of disk space and a minimum of16MB of RAM (24MB recommended) on the clients, and Windows NT Server 3.51 or 4.0running Microsoft Exchange Server 4.0 or later.

Before you can install the server component, you must set up a special NTuser account with the ability to log on as a service, and you must assign thisuser an Exchange Server mailbox. Next, you install the server component on yourNT Server system. After you install Keyflow, you can configure the software withthe Keyflow Server icon in the Keyflow program folder. Clicking this icon opensthe Keyflow Server Setup and Configuration window, as you see in Screen 1.This screen lets you change basic configuration data such as the logonaccount the service uses to log on and the Exchange Server mailbox it interactswith.

Setting Up Keyflow
Using Keyflow is a four-step process that consists of creating a flowtemplate, using the flow template to start a flow, having the systemautomatically deliver task messages and receive updates, and having the softwaremonitor the prerequisites and automatically execute steps. A flow template is agraphical representation of the tasks that users must finish to complete aparticular project or assignment. Creating a flow template is not difficult, butit is time consuming. The amount of time you spend on the flow template growsexponentially as the complexity of the task you want to control increases.

To create a flow template, you use Keyflow's Flow Template option onMicrosoft Exchange's New Form option. Once the product is in form design mode,you use icons to add a series of steps to the project. You can add eightdifferent types of steps to a project: Start (to start a flow), FYI (todistribute information to recipients), Response (to gather responses), Loop (toreturn to previous steps conditionally), Split Path (to spawn or combine aseries of steps), Milestone (to monitor flow progress), Launch (to start anotherflow template), and Done (to complete the flow). After you finish creating theflow template, you store it in a public folder in Exchange Server so that otherusers can access it.

After you add all the steps to your project, you can enhance them byspecifying additional parameters such as prerequisites, voting, recipients,completion dates, and connectors. Prerequisites are conditions that must existbefore a step executes (e.g., a manager's approval of a purchase order request).Voting lets you add prerequisites based on percentages. For example, whether youadd a prerequisite might depend on the number or percentage of recipients(individuals assigned to vote on a particular task) who approve a picnic date.Completion dates let you track when you need to finish certain steps in theproject. With completion dates, you can specify a date or the relative number ofdays from the start of the step. Finally, connectors define the relationshipbetween steps in a project--how the flow of a project progresses from one stepto another. To create and modify connectors, you use the mouse to draw connectorlines between steps.

Tracking a Project
When a user needs to start tracking a new assignment or project, the user(originator, in Keyflow terms) retrieves a flow template from the server andassigns tasks in the flow template to other users (recipients, in Keyflowterms). Exchange Server then sends messages to these recipients to notify themthat they each have a task. After completing the task, each recipientacknowledges its completion back to Exchange Server. At any point in theprocess, the project originator can view the status of the different tasks inthe project. If necessary, the originator can edit the project to forciblyapprove a user's task. This ability to intervene prevents projects from beingheld up if a user is not responding or is on vacation or sick leave.

Keyflow makes full use of Exchange Server's features. For example, on newprojects, you can attach a file for other users to review and approve, which ishelpful in business settings where you need to send a specific document toseveral users for editing and approval. Keyflow also lets you assign due datesso that you can receive a response for each recipient's task. When the due dateexpires, the software automatically sends an alert message informing therecipient that the task is overdue for completion.

Keyflow is an excellent workflow management tool integrated throughExchange Server. The documentation is small but adequate and helpful in allphases of the software's use. Technical support is available on a per-incidentbasis. You can download a demonstration version of the software from thecompany's Web site.